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Doing for Children What We Have Done for Seniors: Government Efforts to End Poverty

Doing for Children What We Have Done for Seniors: Government Efforts to End Poverty

Chapter:

(p.64)
3 Doing for Children What We Have Done for Seniors: Government Efforts to End Poverty

Source:

Child Poverty and Inequality

Author(s):

Duncan Lindsey

Publisher:

Oxford University Press

DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195305449.003.0004

This chapter examines the impact of Social Security on ending poverty among seniors. The Social Security Act included what is commonly referred to as the welfare program (originally called Aid to Families with Dependent Children [AFDC] and now, after welfare reform, referred to as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, [TANF]). Social Security was built on a “social savings” model and required seniors to set aside money for their retirement. As a result, all seniors have a floor of income support which assures them, even if they have no other source of income when they retire, that they will not live in poverty. In contrast to the Social Security program, welfare was built on a “means-tested” approach designed to target income assistance to the most needy. Single mothers and their children who could prove that they lacked the means to provide for themselves were provided cash assistance through the welfare program. In contrast to Social Security that has popular support, over the years, the public has grown weary and sceptical of welfare. Many have come to view welfare as encouraging dependency and out-of-wedlock births.

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PRINTED FROM OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.oxfordscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2019. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in OSO for personal use (for details see www.oxfordscholarship.com/page/privacy-policy).date: 21 March 2019